There is a continuing effort and need for improved antimicrobials and antivirals which can be used with mammals, including humans, and domestic livestock, in order to modulate their immune system to improve their overall health and, for livestock, weight gain and efficiency. There have been some efforts in the past to use antibodies as immune system modulators.
Antibodies can be orally, intravenously or otherwise administered to a subject animal. This process is generally referred to in the art as passive transfer. The antibodies to be transferred generally are derived from milk, colostrum, serum, egg yolk and even monoclonal antibodies from hybridomas. An example of passive transfer occurs when maternal antibodies are passively transferred to newborn mammals through the placenta and during nursing through colostrum and milk. By this method, the young animals obtain protection and natural immunity against harmful antigens in the environment. Similarly, for developing avians, reptiles and other egg laying animals, egg yolk is the source of maternal antibodies.
Recently, therapeutic studies have successfully exploited oral administration of antibodies for the treatment of some infectious diseases. By a process of vaccination, animals can be immunized against specific microorganisms and other antigens. In addition, increased titers of antibodies can be obtained by a process of hyperimmunization. High amounts of specific antibodies can be obtained by immunizing animals with specific antigens and isolating the antibodies from the egg yolk, milk, colostrum or blood serum/plasma.
There are five distinct classes of antibodies which are also called immunoglobulins (Ig). The most abundant is IgG. The other four are IgM, IgA, IgD, and IgE. These antibodies combine with the antigen and act to neutralize or counter the effects of the antigen introduced into the animal. They accomplish this result by binding to the antigen, thereby neutralizing it and preventing it from binding to other specific cell receptors. The main immunoglobulin present in egg yolk is called IgY, which is similar to IgG, but possess considerable temperature and acid resistance.
Egg and milk preparations serve as a practical source of antibodies suitable for consumption by animals. In fact, egg yolks, for example, can contain as much as 100 mg of antibody, and large numbers of antibody-laden eggs can be produced in a relatively short period of time. Since vaccination of an animal can be used to develop such increased antibody titers in milk and eggs, such immunized milk and eggs can be fed to subject animals whereby antibodies are passively transferred to the subject animals to confer immunity and protection against microorganisms. Antibodies can be used not only to fight off pathogenic antigens or other foreign molecules, but can be used, as described herein, to neutralize naturally-occurring proteins, and thereby modulate that protein's normal physiological effect on the animal's system.
While in the past, bovine and porcine blood serum has been orally administered to aid domesticated livestock and the like in weight gain and overall health, to date, no one has isolated from the serum those fractions which provide specific desired benefits.
It goes without saying that an unexpected and unique advantage of isolation of protein fractions causing specific benefits would be the ability to dose precisely, and the ability to regulate specific responses of living cells to microbial agents such as bacteria and virus.
It is a primary objective of this invention to achieve specific protein fraction isolation and dosing with it to provide bacterial and viral resistance.